Customer: “Hello, I own a house I’m trying to sell. The potential buyer had an engineering inspection done, and the inspector told me to call you to come out.”

Me: “Okay, what seems to be the problem?”

Customer: “I don’t know.”

Me: “Well, we need something to go on here. Do you know what we’re looking for, or where we should look?”

Customer: “All I know is the inspector told me to call [Utility Name], and have them come out.”

Me: “Did they say what was wrong?”

Customer: “No! Why are you making this so hard?”

Me: “In order to send a crew out to potentially fix something, we have to have some idea what is broken. Also, whatever is broken might turn out to be customer owned, and not our equipment. In that case we will not be able to. Lastly, we need to send different crews for different issues. In order to send the correct people, we need to know what we’re dealing with.”

Customer: “I don’t understand why this has to be difficult! I’m reporting an issue to you, and I need you to come out and fix it. Why can’t you just send somebody out! I don’t understand why this is so hard!”

Me: “So, let me get this straight. You want me to send out a crew to repair something, but you don’t know what is broken, why you need us to come out, or if it is even an issue on our end, or our responsibility at all?”